those questions hang over hillary clinton's final months as secretary of state. top state department officials were on the defensive wednesday, the brutal assault on the u.s. consulate in benghazi became fodder for a verbal fire fight on capitol hill. >> i'm going to tell you this thing smells. >> reporter: members of the house top investigative body accused the agency of denying necessary protection for diplomats. even the department's former security chief in libya, eric nordstrom claimed washington rejected requests for help. >> it was abundantly clear we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident. >> reporter: diplomatic security charlene lamb countered that assertion. >> sir, we had the correct number of assets in benghazi at the time of 9/11. for what had been agreed upon. >> to start off by saying you had the correct number and our ambassador and three other individuals are dead and people are in the hospital recovering because it only took moments to breach that facility, somehow doesn't seem to ring true to the american people. >>